Ste-Foy Elementary:
a Learning School

In June 2003, the QESN-RÉCIT team visited Ste-Foy Elementary School to document its journey across the implementation of the QEP. We met with the school team who shared with us the road traveled and their current experiences and projects.

In 2003, Ste-Foy Elementary School hosted a population of about 250 children from kindergarten to cycle 3 Over the years, the area served by the school has expanded from its original Ste-Foy community to include the Québec south shore from Lévis to St-Nicolas and the north shore from Sillery to St-Augustin.

Because the majority of the school's clientele speaks French more fluently than English, second-language teaching strategies are often used alongside the regular English Language Arts curriculum. Parents, students and staff members also work together to promote the English language at school and at home. Students benefit from an "enriched" French language program leading to a cycle 3 assessment using the French mother tongue MÉQ exam.

The hallmark of the school
We are a "learning school": a teacher-centred school with student-centred classrooms in which everyone is an active, responsible learner.

"The concept in our school is that everybody is learning: the students are learning in the class and the teachers are learning in sharing their projects and taking leadership in professional development. [...] We have a model where everybody is learning and teaching each other and the idea of a Learning School is a nice way of describing that." Andrew Aitkin

Meet the Staff:

Until December 2003 Andrew Aitken was principal of Ste-Foy Elementary and Micheline Gagné was co-principal as well as French Specialist. When Mr. Aitken retired, Mrs. Gagné took over the post. This had been planned as a strategy to ensure continuity in the process of implementing the reform and its accompanying practices.

• 2002-2003
• 2003-2004